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The Cannon Carriage

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Bountyhunter

50 Cal.
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Oct 5, 2005
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I have had a Cannon barrel for about 10 years now, always intending to get the carriage finished. How are you guys making your carriages?

I have a book called Arming the Fleet which totally describes the ships cannons and carriages through the time that front loading cannons were used. How the carriages were constructed, why, and how to figure the dimensions.

Is anyone else using this book?
 
Ode to the edit button...it still sucks.

Arming the Fleet is apparently out of print and the copies that I have found used for sale, run to as much as $300 each. I believe I gave about $100 for this one probably 7-8 years ago.

I have visited with Spencer Tucker, the author, and he has no intent of reprinting the book, so it will be one you will have to find at the library. Cannon carriages are designed and constructed according to a forumla set forth by the diameter of the bore of the cannon. 2" bore is 2" cheeks. 8" bore should have 8" cheeks. Pretty good stuff in Tuckers book.
 
Hi Bountyhunter, if you have a look at a topic I started a while ago called Members project Cannons, Mortars & Howitzers which was meant to hopefully help any members looking to start or finish a project and needing a little information & inspiration. To answer your question of what I worked from it was a book which is available from Ray Riling books which is A Treatise of Artillery 1780 by John Muller which sounds as though it has much similar information in it as Arming the Fleet which is the book you have (I”˜ll have to get a copy of that !). Anyway that is what I used to get the results pictured under the above mentioned topic, hope that is of some help to you, Regards, Broadarrow
 
Yes, Tucker uses the Muller book as a reference extensively and adds a lot to it. Tucker essentially takes Mullers book and brings it up to about 1890 or whenever the Navy began using breechloaders. Tucker has an extensive list of books on military weapons and actions.
 
I am still looking for the link to your article.

After studying Tuckers book in detail, I am finding that there are formulas for the construction of carriages all in terms of the bore of the cannon.

Tucker quotes two different sources on the size of the carriage trucks (wheels) Muller saying that they would be 4 times the bore for the front wheels and 3-1/2 times the bore for the rear wheels. A different source used smaller wheels. Being an old dryland, flatland farm boy, it makes for some pretty good reading.
 
c13.jpg

c2.jpg

c31.jpg

c4.jpg


These are not photos, they are just a few quick snapshots. Yes, I know there is some surface rust in the bore, but I have a cylinder hone that will smoothe that right out. This little brute isnt all that big, I think it is 28" long and about 80#. It is as much as you care to just go lugging around.

I chose the Hern Ironworks because of their reputation for quality casting of machine parts. They are quite reputable in the mining industry for quality castings. John told me that he supplied Dixie with their cannons. I bought this from him for about half of what Dixie charged.

She's built like a battle ship-sorta like my first wife-reinforced in the points of greatest stress......homely, but functional.
 
I like the profile of your barrel, I bet you can get the neighbours dog's barking with that....hehehe! I am looking forward to seeing your progress as you get into the build, also if you don't mind can you post some pictures under members project cannons, mortars & howitzers, Regards, Broadarrow
 
I got one picture to open, the one which shows the bronze barrel with the 17-2-5 on the breech. That is the weight of an original gun indicating probably a 6 pounder which would have been 7'long.
 
:cursing: :cursing: edit

The 17 referred to CWT or Hundredweight, the 2 referred to Quarters or 25# and the 5 referred to pounds so whoever cast that barrel was indicating that it weighed 1755#. By the charts in this book and by Mullers formulas, that would have made that gun a 6 pounder and would have in life been 7 feet long.

The bore would have been 3.5", the iron shot would have actually weighed 5.5 pounds and would have been fired with 5.5# of powder. Hows that? :haha:

Buying one of these danged barrels is only the start of it all. Constructing an accurate carriage is the major headache and getting the parts of that accurate. My challenge right now is getting the trunnion caps forged at the proper angles. Once the carriage is constructed, then hitching the breeching and rigging begins, and making those danged blocks and pulleys is going to be real fun!!! Especially in that small of scale. Fortunately, I happen to have 2 original wooden pulleys to work from but, for the era of the USS Constitution, they did not use metal pulleys in the blocks.......... :hmm:
 
Bountyhunter,

I have that same cannon. Nice to see another. :wink: I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

Cannon_HalfScale.jpg


Cannon_HalfScale3.jpg
 
I have the side brackets of the carriage cut out from white oak that I cut off of my property. I just need to get home so I can get in the shop and finish it. Did you forge your trunion cap squares? Being as the brackets set at the same angle as the first and base reinforcing rings then the trunions cross the cap squares at half that angle. Getting that sucker beat in there has held me off as I do not have a Swage Block available of proper size. Ships blacksmiths had a special angled swage block for that purpose. I may cobble something up for that since I only have to beat two of them out.
 
Bountyhunter said:
I have had a Cannon barrel for about 10 years now, always intending to get the carriage finished. How are you guys making your carriages?

I have a book called Arming the Fleet which totally describes the ships cannons and carriages through the time that front loading cannons were used. How the carriages were constructed, why, and how to figure the dimensions.

Is anyone else using this book?
BH, I used the book "Round Shot and Rammers" which I believe may also be out of print. The drawings are scaled and I scanned the appropriate page, then printed it on graph paper. This made it fairly easy to scale to my barrel.
Navalcannons.jpg

My barrel is 22" long with a 1" bore. I did take some liberties with the carriage, but it is pretty close, at least I think so.
 
Bountyhunter said:
Did you forge your trunion cap squares?

No, I purchased this and a full size one second hand. So, all of the work was already done.
 

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